Post-dinner, I think maybe one way I'm looking at it is that a dialect is a sub-part of a language, as though it's incomplete on its own. To speak a dialect is to speak something... that's not as thorough, or as standard, like it's lacking something that languages have.
(Except that dialects are supposed to be mostly mutually intelligible, right? I defy anyone to translate what my paternal great-aunt is saying when she gets going. Hell, I can't even understand what she's saying, sometimes, between grammar, accent, and the actual idioms used. Not to mention the very subtle nuances of what appear to be grammatically incorrect phrases but are in fact very precise -- like the use of "done" and where it goes in the sentence, but I digress.)
To speak a language signifies being part of a group, distinct (as opposed to being a mediocre not-close-enough attempt at someone else's/mainstream's language). Could there be more prestige if there was a big push to see jive/creole/American Vernacular as actual American, and the mainstream language -- as American English -- to differentiate them like so. As in: "American English" is a dialect of [British] English. American is not; American is a language in its own right, and the main speakers and conveyors of this language are not, in fact, white people.
Actually, I think that's pretty cool. At least, it is if I'm thinking what I think I'm thinking, but if it doesn't come across or comes across kinda wierd, maybe it's post-dinner haze. Post-code haze, post-dinner haze, maybe I should blame the entirety of today on the fact that I had cake for breakfast...
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Date: 31 Jan 2011 03:52 am (UTC)(Except that dialects are supposed to be mostly mutually intelligible, right? I defy anyone to translate what my paternal great-aunt is saying when she gets going. Hell, I can't even understand what she's saying, sometimes, between grammar, accent, and the actual idioms used. Not to mention the very subtle nuances of what appear to be grammatically incorrect phrases but are in fact very precise -- like the use of "done" and where it goes in the sentence, but I digress.)
To speak a language signifies being part of a group, distinct (as opposed to being a mediocre not-close-enough attempt at someone else's/mainstream's language). Could there be more prestige if there was a big push to see jive/creole/American Vernacular as actual American, and the mainstream language -- as American English -- to differentiate them like so. As in: "American English" is a dialect of [British] English. American is not; American is a language in its own right, and the main speakers and conveyors of this language are not, in fact, white people.
Actually, I think that's pretty cool. At least, it is if I'm thinking what I think I'm thinking, but if it doesn't come across or comes across kinda wierd, maybe it's post-dinner haze. Post-code haze, post-dinner haze, maybe I should blame the entirety of today on the fact that I had cake for breakfast...